Map to Australian Curriculum - Year 3

Australian Curriculum

Meets Standard

Frog’s Princess

Language

Examine how evaluative language can be varied to be more or less forceful (ACELA1477 - Scootle )

Tasks and activities may include identifying and listing the modality of language to show urgency, obligation or stress. These words can be placed on a scale of modality.

For example, you must complete this task is much higher in modality than you could do this task.

Understand how different types of texts vary in use of language choices, depending on their purpose and context (for example, tense and types of sentences) (ACELA1478 - Scootle )

Text structure is unique as it is a script based format or dialogue framed. In addition to the unique text structure from typical narratives, language features suit the time period and setting.

There is also character specific language to portray their personality, for example, the eldest princess values intelligence and moderation.  Her speech usually incorporates comments like, “I presume”, “One might suspect”, and “I’m sure that”.

The second princess values courage and action.  She is very active and her speech is full of short demands: “Get up.”/ “Speak up.”/ “Stop asking.”

Know that word contractions are a feature of informal language and that apostrophes of contraction are used to signal missing letters (ACELA1480 - Scootle )

With support, students and teachers can use Frog’s Princess to find contractions in words and discuss the purpose of the contraction in the situation.

Identify the features of online texts that enhance navigation (ACELA1790 - Scootle )

Although Frog’s Princess isn’t an online text, it features the same navigational tools that online texts and websites use such as: back and forward buttons, site navigation through scene and chapter selection, options, settings and saving your story.

Understand that verbs represent different processes, for example doing, thinking, saying, and relating and that these processes are anchored in time through tense (ACELA1482 - Scootle )

With support, teachers can lead students on word investigations or word hunts that look for specific verbs about different actions.

e.g. Finding verbs that relate to a doing action and creating a list.

Identify the effect on audiences of techniques, for example shot size, vertical camera angle and layout in picture books, advertisements and film segments (ACELA1483 - Scootle )

Students will gain exposure of different angles and shot sizes through reading the story as the illustrations and animations offer several scenes where multiple characters are interacting in a variety of ways and with several different responses and emotions.

Also, several of the pages incorporate zoom. Lighting is also evident, with 158 different lighting settings showing time of day and danger, plus VFX glows showing, for example, the golden glow of safety.

Learn extended and technical vocabulary and ways of expressing opinion including modal verbs and adverbs (ACELA1484 - Scootle )

By choosing different reactions and responses, students are exposed to a wide range of ways to express opinion and emotion. The game particularly focuses on reactions that are: neutral, angry, endearing….

Understand how to apply knowledge of letter-sound relationships, syllables, and blending and segmenting to fluently read and write multisyllabic words with more complex letter patterns (ACELA1826 - Scootle )

The story develops students’ letter sound relationships through the use of written dialogue accompanied by a narrator and voice actors. These read-aloud options develop students’ ability to decode words and discover the correct way to pronunciation words and sounds.

Know how to use common prefixes and suffixes, and generalisations for adding a suffix to a base word (ACELA1827 - Scootle )

Suggested activities can include searching for, identifying and listing different prefixes and suffixes. Using these word lists, teachers and students can build understandings of how an affix changes a word.

Literature

Discuss texts in which characters, events and settings are portrayed in different ways, and speculate on the authors’ reasons (ACELT1594 - Scootle )

A similar text to use is The Frog Prince which has been retold as a Disney movie, in the Frog’s Princess interactive storybook and in many standard fairy tale compilations and in many innovative ways.

Discussion points include: 

Why most stories don’t include the titular character Iron Henry;

Different things that happen in the transformation scene – e.g. Princess to frog;

Different settings e.g. urban contemporary or 1920s Bayou or Medieval. 

Kassel is a real city on the German fairy tale route and Olden (now Oldenborough) is nearer the coast.

Other changes include: the author introduced a witch, and made the witch make the frog knock the ball into the well rather than it being dropped in carelessly; there is a predator in the well so retrieval is dangerous, Iron Henry did not place the bands on himself but instead heroically tried to save the prince who now has a strong motive for turning back into a prince and rescuing Iron Henry, there are two elder sisters to contrast different virtues, and many other changes to the original story.

Draw connections between personal experiences and the worlds of texts, and share responses with others (ACELT1596 - Scootle )

Possible activities can be making text to self, text to text and text to world connections.

These are:

Text to self: Connections in the story that relate to the reader

Text to text: connections in the game that are familiar in other texts the player has read.

Text to world: Connections the player makes to current or past events in real life.

Develop criteria for establishing personal preferences for literature (ACELT1598 - Scootle )

Suggested activities may include, creating a reader’s profile of preferences. This is completed throughout the reader’s journey. Next, players can identify what features they specifically like and dislike.

For example, Frog’s Princess is a strongly structured fairy tale with consistent characterisation, high drama, pathos and humour.

Discuss how language is used to describe the settings in texts, and explore how the settings shape the events and influence the mood of the narrative (ACELT1599 - Scootle )

There are several opportunities for teachers to support students in finding language that describes the setting and characters.

For example, describing the eldest sister as being intelligent or Princess Emma as a ‘True Princess’.

Or, describing the scene, for example, “The King lets the wood grow wild…”

And, “The King of Kassel is stricken with grief because his Queen has died…”

Discuss the nature and effects of some language devices used to enhance meaning and shape the reader’s reaction, including rhythm and onomatopoeia in poetry and prose (ACELT1600 - Scootle )

Players and teachers have the opportunity to highlight different literary devices used in the game as exemplar models.

For example, imagery is used when the witch tells Francis that Iron Henry will become “a creature of the mud.”

Or, onomatopoeias like:

“Humph. Damn pudding is cold again.”

Literacy

Identify the point of view in a text and suggest alternative points of view (ACELY1675 - Scootle )

Students are constantly engaged in a unique story which unravels different perspectives and points of views. Students must draw on information discovered from different storylines to draw conclusions and use a range of comprehension strategies to interpret the text.

Students will also develop an understanding that there is always more than one point of view on a situation – this is evidenced in the contrasting priorities of Francis and Emma throughout the story.

Use interaction skills, including active listening behaviours and communicate in a clear, coherent manner using a variety of everyday and learned vocabulary and appropriate tone, pace, pitch and volume (ACELY1792 - Scootle )

Active listening is developed and promoted throughout the interactive storybook from the read-aloud option and as students have options to react in different ways which change the way the controlled character reacts to situations. Active listening is also developed as information is passed through voice actors which also exposes students to tone, pace and pitch when reacting and responding to different situations (e.g. the change in tone when an angry response is chosen)

Identify the audience and purpose of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts (ACELY1678 - Scootle )

Teachers can support players to identify the audience for the game.Tthere are several options:

Children, vision and hearing impaired, people for whom English is a second language, people who love fairy tales.

Read an increasing range of different types of texts by combining contextual, semantic, grammatical and phonic knowledge, using text processing strategies, for example monitoring, predicting, confirming, rereading, reading on and self-correcting (ACELY1679 - Scootle )

The same as level 2:

The interactive storybook provides opportunities for players to monitor their reading by comparing to the read-aloud element. Furthermore, as players must click ‘next’ to progress, there is further opportunity to think about their reading, rather than being rushed or pushed to another scene without being ready to move on.

In addition, there are several opportunities for instructional support to focus on developing specific reading strategies. For example, reading after the narrator reads to ensure proper intonation and fluency – or before the narrator to self-monitor and self-correct any miscues. Furthermore, reading along with the narrator (chorus reading) allows for the development of fluency.

Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning and begin to evaluate texts by drawing on a growing knowledge of context, text structures and language features (ACELY1680 - Scootle )

The same as level 2:

Whilst reading, students have multiple opportunities to use comprehension strategies to interpret and understand what is happening in the book. Depending on students’ abilities to actively use comprehension strategies whilst reading, a range of strategies can be used.

In addition to students developing their own comprehension strategies, with support, teachers can use the storybook to focus on specific comprehension strategies at various stages of the book.

e.g. making predictions before a student reads (or continues reading), provides tasks that asks students to actively make connections to themselves as they read or prompts students to activate their prior knowledge before reading.

Students can also infer personality traits, for example after the first princess’s calm refusal to believe the frog, the second princess’s dashing off to rescue his bodyguard shows the contrast in their personalities.

Australian Curriculum

Meets Standard

Frog’s Princess

Analysing, synthesising and evaluating reasoning and procedures element

Identify and apply appropriate reasoning and thinking strategies for particular outcomes

With support, students can use situations that occurred within the game to assess and evaluate the thinking strategies used by characters.

Example prompts may include: Did Prince Francis make the right decision to reveal Princess Emma’s promise? Why do you think he chose that path?

Draw on prior knowledge and use evidence when choosing a course of action or drawing a conclusion

Students will constantly rely on prior knowledge from stories with similar plot lines and within the same genre. Although their decisions do not affect the outcome, they still choose the reaction they want based on knowledge from different perspectives and knowledge gained from travelling through the story.

This skill also combines with comprehension strategies to infer and make predictions about the story.

explain and justify ideas and outcomes

Suggested activities could be highlighting certain situations and outcomes and explaining why they happened this way.

For example, students can engage in discussing and analysing why the Princess threw Francis against the wall. Or, even flip the perspective and look at the ultimate outcome of Lady Lorelai, asking whether her plan had the outcome she desired. Why or why not?

Reflecting on thinking and processes element

Reflect on, explain and check the processes used to come to conclusions

There are several opportunities for teachers to engage students in reflection and explanation of drawn conclusions, for example, Emma’s mother told her that one day, her prince would come.  Does that mean Emma should just do nothing and wait?

Another opportunity to reflect and explain thought processes is when Francis is analysing the three princesses to be wed, asking Iron Henry if something is wrong with them as they haven’t been wed yet – jumping to conclusions about them. Furthermore, Francis jumps to conclusions that they might not want him either.

Identify pertinent information in an investigation and separate into smaller parts or ideas

With support, teachers and students can use parts of the game to brainstorm and list several parts of information that lead to an outcome. Furthermore, students and teachers can work backwards from an outcome and identify the parts of information that led to this outcome.

For example, working backwards from Lady Lorelai’s plan, collecting information that leads to the actual outcome.

Furthermore, working backwards from Princess Emma’s story, collecting clues about the meaning of the Golden Orb or her journey to save the kingdom.

Transfer and apply information in one setting to enrich another

Teachers could support students to identify good and poor choices made by characters throughout the game, then, by identifying these choices, create guidelines for students to use the same processes in other situations and circumstances.

For example, what could we learn from Prince Francis’s behaviour in the early stages of the game, constantly asking for a kiss from any princess versus his behaviour in the later stages of the game where he’s more devoted to Princess Emma and trusting her decisions and enlisting the help of others.

Australian Curriculum

Meets Standard

Frog’s Princess

Understand relationships

Describe factors that contribute to positive relationships, including with people at school and in their community

The game allows teachers to use the story arc to highlight behaviours that contribute to positive relationship building and in contrast, those that lead to negative relationships.

For example: How do Francis and Emma help each other gain confidence? Or, comparing and contrasting the interactions between Francis and Emma that lead to positive outcomes and negative outcomes. Analysing why certain outcomes happened.

Make decisions

Contribute to and predict the consequences of group decisions in a range of situations

As a class, teachers can engage students by showing all available reaction options and having students vote to design the character appearances and take turns to choose the dialogue response.

Discussions can also circle around making predictions based on the reactions – how will the characters respond to these responses?

Negotiate and resolve conflict

Identify a range of conflict resolution strategies to negotiate positive outcomes to problems

Teachers can support students to identify how to appropriately resolve conflict by being truthful and honest in situations. An example from the game is how no one will listen to Emma.  Is she right to persuade people magically if she can’t persuade them any other way?

Australian Curriculum

Meets Standard

Frog’s Princess

Interacting and empathising with others

Identify and describe shared perspectives within and across various cultural groups

There are several unique features that can highlight different perspectives, for example, students can choose baldness for either or both of the heroes, in a show of solidarity for cancer patients.

Students can close their eyes and play as vision impaired players, or mute all sounds and play as hearing impaired players.   These are very frustrating exercises which increase empathy for people with visual or aural impairments.